Guppies: A Great Fish for Children and First Time Fish Owners

Guppies are an excellent choice for somebody who is new to keeping fish. Guppies are very small you do not need a large tank to keep them alive. You can place on guppy in a 2 gallon tank and be fine. If you want to keep around 10 guppies you will need to keep them in at least a 10 gallon tank.

These fish will reach about an inch and a half in length. Guppies are very colorful and you can purchase them in every color you can possibly imagine. If you want to have babies in your fish tank you can purchase a female and she will most likely already be pregnant.

Females will have color on only their tails. The males will have color on their bodies as well. The males will have a colorful top fin. The females will only have color on their tail. If you cannot tell the difference between males and females you can ask the person working at the pet store to help you out. They will be able to tell the difference. Usually they will keep all of them together but in some cases the males and females will be separated. If you look around in the fish tank you will be able to see baby guppies in the tank.

Guppies are livebearers which means that they will not lay eggs in the tank. The females will get pregnant and then they will have babies about 30 days later. They can have up to 60 babies at a time. If you don't want babies you will need to purchase only males or only females.

You can feed guppies fish flakes as well as different types of frozen food. You want to feed them a variety of food. The babies will eat fry food which you can purchase from the pet store. Fish food will last you about 2 or 3 months. You don't need to feed guppies a lot of food at one time. You should feed the guppies twice per day. A few fish flakes for a few fish is sufficient. You will want to keep the temperature somewhere around 75 degrees. You will want to place a heater in the tank to keep the tank at a steady temperature.

Guppies are very easy to care for. They are not aggressive. You will want to purchase 3 females and 1 male. If you want more guppies you will need to keep a 3 to 1 ratio. Males will chase the females around all day long. If you have more males than females the females will start to die off. Remember to purchase the correct amount of males to females.